SACRAMENTO, California--Environmental activists in California on Thursday protested a Trump Administration proposal to vastly increase offshore oil drilling in the United States.
The protest immediately preceded a public meeting by the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in Sacramento, where officials will be available to talk with members of the public about the proposed drilling expansion and help them submit public comments.
At the protest at the state Capitol building, several hundred people, some carrying a giant blue inflatable whale, listened to speakers warn the Trump administration not to drill for oil off California's coastline. Others carried signs with slogans like, "Oil and sea life don't mix."
"Do not pollute our planet for your profit," California state Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson told the cheering crowd. "You do not represent us." Jackson's Santa Barbara district's coastline has been polluted by oil spills from past drilling.
Carrying a sign showing a sea otter, Joseph Palermo, a history professor at Sacramento State, said he came to love the coastline as a college student. "The coast is very important to me," he said. "I heard about this and I had to come out."
California officials said on Wednesday the state would block transport of such petroleum through its waters. On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission also weighed in, requesting that the state be removed from consideration for offshore drilling. The state's Natural Resources secretary, John Laird, also voiced opposition.
The protest was organized by several environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Offshore drilling is dirty and it’s dangerous," said Miyoko Sakashita, head of the oceans programme for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It results in oil spills that injure and kill wildlife."
California's threat to deny pipeline permits for transporting oil from new leases off the Pacific Coast is the latest step by states trying to halt the biggest proposed expansion in decades of federal oil and gas leasing. Officials in Florida, North and South Carolina, Delaware and Washington state have warned drilling could despoil beaches, harm wildlife and hurt lucrative tourism industries.
On Wednesday, California officials sent a formal letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management demanding that the Pacific coast be removed from the programme. The State Lands Commission, which must approve any new pipelines, said in the letter it would not permit the movement of oil from new offshore leases to pass through state land or water.
